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4E CUP OF GOLD 



BY RUTH MERRIAM GILLESPIE ft 



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THE CUP OF GOLD 




And there in all its beauty lay the Dream-Child 



The Cup ofQold 

BY 

RUTH MERRIAM 
GILLESPIE 




ILLUSTRATED BY 

ANNA WILLE 



SAN FRANCISCO 

1917 




The Cup of gold 



ON the shore of the western ocean 
there is a great and beautiful 
country, which in the ages long ago 
was inhabited only by the Fairies of the 
Hills and the Sea. 

It was a land of flowers and sunshine, 
even as it is now, with high mountains, 
wonderful old trees, and fertile green 
valleys. 

The waves curled up on its shore, 
sometimes against high cliffs and some- 
times on a sandy beach where the Chil- 
dren of the Sea came to play with their 



=i^ "the Cup of gddyv== 

many-colored shells in the sunshine. 
They rode through the caves on the 
backs of the tortoises, and chased the 
seals from the rocks where they dived 
and played and drove them in to the 
shore. At sunset they drifted out with 
the tide to their home under the sea, 
where they continued their play, hav- 
ing games with the shimmering fish, 
racing their white horses to the crests 
of the waves, rolling great pearls on the 
floor of the ocean, and making strings 
of coral beads. 

The Children of the Forest laughed 
and danced under the trees, throwing 
garlands of flowers high in the air where 
they swung from the branches and sang 
the songs of the birds with whom they 
played. Sometimes they were joined by 
the little bands of Elves and Sprites, 
who came down from the mountains to 



; «( ^ The Cup of gold ^ ; « =^ 

roll their nuggets of gold on the hill- 
sides, and who told wonderful stories 
of the caves of their mountain homes, 
where the walls were gleaming streaks 
of gold and green, with roofs all lined 
with silver; and of a beautiful Princess, 
whose eyes were the color of the azure 
sky, whose hair of silken gold covered 
her like a cloud, and whose robe was of 
a silver sheen like the roofs of their little 
caves. She ruled over them and was the 
Spirit of Joy itself, until one day, in a 
spirit of adventure, she had followed 
some little black Gnomes deep into the 
mountains, to the cave of the terrible 
Iron King. 

This stern King brooded and planned 
and worked in a huge black cavern 
deep down in the earth, where even the 
millions of torches made only a dim 
light. 



>:«(^ The Cup of gold ^:«: 




The Children of the Forest laughed and 
danced under the trees 



=*:-( ^ The Cup of gold y > 

He ruled with a hand like his iron, 
cold and hard and cruel, thinking only 
of his own ambition and always work- 
ing to forge that power which should 
be supreme over all the world. Con- 
stantly he planned, and constantly the 
little Gnomes worked to accomplish 
the mighty tasks which were ever be- 
fore them; working night and day in 
the great black cave with their torches, 
flames, and hammers. 

When the Princess came before the 
King, he was very angry, though he ad- 
mired her courage, and, wishing to show 
her the might of his power, he had her 
chained to the steps of his throne,where 
he showed her the marvellous works 
which he would give to the world; the 
creations of his brain, made perfect by 
the strength of his will, which would 
at last make him Master of all. 



=*:« ( "The Cup of Qold y ^ == 

The Princess was frightened, but she 
was thrilled by the majesty of the King, 
by his great strength, and by the won- 
derful mind which conceived and car- 
ried out the ideas inspired by his ambi- 
tion and desire for power. But she 
thought it was a pity that he should 
not have a wider vision, that he should 
not know the glories and beauties of 
the rest of the world, or the inspiration 
of the Spirit which would make him 
truly great, and she was filled with the 
desire to show him some of that joy 
and light which he had never known, 
and to give him a new understanding 
through which they might together seek 
that rare and beautiful child of the 
Spirit, called Happiness. 

Gradually the Iron King, overcome 
by the sweetness of her smile, the glint 
of the gold in her hair, and the wonder- 



» • M 



— <(^ The Cup of gold y> 

ful light in the starlike eyes, took away 
her chains and allowed himself to be led 
into a beautiful palace of dreams,where 
she showed him all the beauty of the 
world. He heard the songs of the birds, 
the murmur of the streams, and was sur- 
rounded by the perfume of the flowers. 
She showed him the children dancing 
in the sunshine, the purple haze on the 
mountains, the white crests of the waves 
on the shore, and the colors of the sun- 
set. She tried in every way to soften his 
cold heart, to bring the Spirit of Love 
into his soul; but he gave her only a day 
and then returned to that work which 
was the passion of his life, and then — 
he forgot her utterly. 

The Princess went back to the Elves 
and Sprites and waited for the Iron King 
to remember and call her back. But the 
summons never came, and so at the end 



=*> Q The Cup of gold y > = 

of a year, not being able to forget, she 
went and stood before him silently — 
and — he followed her as before to the 
palace of beautiful dreams, where she 
tried again to win his heart to love and 
happiness; but— at the end of a day he 
left her. Only for a moment could she 
hold him in her dream, for his ambition 
was greater than his love; and she was 
crushed by the Iron of his Will. 

Each year she went to him with a new 
dream, and each year she died a new 
death of the Spirit in her effort to create 
the dream-child of Happiness. Each 
year of neglect and sorrow took away 
some of her strength and power, for she 
gave of herself, the very life of her soul, 
receiving in return only a transient kiss. 

Finally all her treasure of golden 
dreams was gone and there came a time 
when there was nothing left to offer the 



— >:«(^ The Cup of gold ^:« 

Iron King; for the Spirit of Love is a 
frail and delicate flower, which must 
be tended and cherished to bring it in- 
to its full power of beauty and bloom, 
and which, if neglected, withers away 
and dies. Each gift of the Princess was 
a part of her life which the Iron King 
absorbed into himself, and for which he 
gave no return. 

The joy and light faded from the 
azure eyes, the lips no longer smiled, 
and the gold of her hair became like 
the silver of her robe. She left the golden 
caves of her mountain home, and wan- 
dered by the sea like a gray shadow of 
the mist, grieving for the child of her 
dreams, for the Spirit of Happiness, for 
which she had sacrificed her life, and 
which had never been born. 

She wandered for a long time, and 
finally came to a grotto filled with a 



=*:«( ^ The Cup of gold y !f= 

soft blue light, and — resting on a large 
rock on the yellow sand she saw a great 
pink shell which was still unopened. As 
she stooped to lift the top of the shell, 
a dazzling Fairy of the Light stood be- 
fore her and said: 

"Thou who wast once the Spirit of 
Joy art now the Spirit of Suffering, be- 
cause thou gavest too freely of the gold- 
en dreams which I bestowed upon thee. 
I cannot bring back the golden dreams; 
but I may bestow on thee one more 
gift which, afteryears of strife and suffer- 
ing, will rest upon the spirit of this land, 
a blessing, even as thou, who hast lived 
its life in thy spirit, shalt receive the 
blessing of that gift which restores to 
thee thy life and power. 

"Open the shell and thou shalt find 
thy dream — but it shall remain with 
thee under another name — it is called 



==>I«r The Cup of gold \>= 

the Spirit of Peace. In the hand of the 
child thou wilt find the Cup of Forget- 
fulness of Pain, and in the perfume of 
the flower thy power to dream again. 

"Nor shall thy golden dreams of old 
be entirely lost. They shall live again 
in the work of the Iron King for the 
progress of the world; while the works 
of his ambition and his lust of power 
shall be works of ruin and destruction 
breathing forth death and desolation, 
which, after a day of life, shall go down 
to oblivion forever; while those which 
sprang from the inspiration of thy gold- 
en dreams shall endure to be a glory to 
the world." 

The Princess opened the shell, and 
there in all its beauty lay the dream- 
child— the Spirit of Happiness itself— 
for which she had sought so long; and 
in the tiny hand was a golden flower 



='i<( ^ "The Cup of gol7j *> 

shaped like a little cup. But as she took 
it into her arms, the little form faded 
away, leaving in her hand only the little 
golden flower. For in this world it is 
not permitted to keep the Spirit of Per- 
fect Happiness for more than a moment, 
and many never see its face. 

The Princess clasped the flower to 
her breast, inhaling its perfume as she 
ran back to the hills. As she ran her 
power came back, the silver of her hair 
was tinged again with gold, and she be- 
came more beautiful than ever before. 
The Spirit of Happiness which she had 
held in her arms for a moment now 
shone from her eyes as the Spirit of 
Peace. 

She scattered the petals of the golden 
flower, and the flower faces covered the 
hillsides, and clustered in all the valleys, 
sending out their perfumes of dreams 



=»> Q The Cup of g old ^ >> ^^== 

and peace. Their petals caught the 
rays of the sun, and shone in a golden 
glory over all the land. 

The Princess still lives in her moun- 
tain home, and comes forth only once 
a year to pour over the hillsides dreams 
and fancies, perfumes and colors from 
the great flower cup which the Elves 
and Sprites have fashioned from the 
walls of their little caves, and which 
they w^ork every day in the year to fill 
with the shimmer of golden dreams, 
the perfume of silver memories, the 
blue of the sky, the purple of the haze 
on the mountains, and the colors of the 
sunset, to renew and mend the broken 
dreams and bring peace to the hearts 
of men. 



<^HERE ENDS THE CUP OF 
GOLD, A STORY BY RUTH 
MERRIAM GILLESPIE«=?«FIVE 
HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED 
BY TAYLOR & TAYLOR AT 
THEIR PRESS IN SAN FRAN 
CISCO, IN THE YEAR MCM 
XVII <^ ILLUSTRATIONS 
BY ANNA WILLE 



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^ OF 




